Welcome to Submission (Islam)

INTRODUCTION

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

This is God's final message to humanity. All of God's prophets have
come to this world, and all the scriptures have been delivered. The time
has come to purify and consolidate all the messages delivered by God's prophets
into one message, and to proclaim that henceforth, there is only one religion
acceptable to God, "Submission" (3:19, 85). "Submission" is the religion
whereby we recognize God's absolute authority, and reach an unshakeable
conviction that God ALONE possesses all power; no other entity possesses
any power that is independent of Him. The natural result of such a realization
is to devote our lives and our worship absolutely to God ALONE. This is
the First Commandment in all the scriptures, including the Old Testament,
the New Testament, and this Final Testament.

Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is
One God!
Therefore you shall adore the Lord your God
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength. [Deuteronomy
6:4-5, Mark 12:29-30, Quran 3:18]

Let us meditate on God, His glorious
attributes,
who is the basis of everything in this universe as its Creator,
who is fit to be worshiped as Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient
and self existent conscious being,
who removes all ignorance and impurities from the mind
and purifies and sharpens our intellect.
[Gayatri Mantra, Yajur
Veda]

While every religion has been corrupted by innovations, traditions,
and false, idolatrous doctrines, there may be "Submitters" within every
religion. There may be Submitters who are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu,
Buddhist, or anything else. These Submitters, collectively, constitute
the only religion acceptable to God. As emphasized by the theme on the front
page of this book, all Submitters who are devoted to God ALONE, and do not
set up any idols beside God, are redeemed into God's eternal kingdom (2:62).
A criterion of the true submitters is that they will find nothing objectionable
in the Quran.

With the advent of this Testament, God's message to the world is
now complete. We have now received the long awaited answers to our most
urgent questions - who we are, the purpose of our lives, how we came
into this world, where do we go from here, which religion is the right
one, was it evolution or creation, etc.

Some may wonder: "Why did God wait all this time to perfect and consolidate
His message? What about all the people since Adam who did not receive
the complete scripture?" Bearing in mind that the Quran answers this question
in 20:52, it is a matter of simple statistics that the world's population
from the beginning until now did not exceed 7,000,000,000. From now to
the end of the world, 2280 A.D. (Appendix 25), it is estimated that the
total world population will exceed 75,000,000,000. Thus, the vast majority
of people are destined to receive God's purified and consolidated message
(see diagram).

World population from now (1989) to the end of
the world (2280).

[ The black section represents the world population since Adam ]

Before Genesis

It all began billions of years ago when one of God's high-ranking
creatures, Satan, developed a supercilious idea that he could run a dominion
as an independent god besides God. This challenge to God's absolute authority
was not only blasphemous, it was also erroneous. Satan was ignorant of
the fact that God alone possesses the ability to be a god, and that there
is much more to godhood than he realized. It was the ego - arrogance augmented
by ignorance - that led Satan to believe that he could take care of
a dominion, as a god, and run it without disease, misery, war, accidents,
and chaos. The vast majority of God's creatures disagreed with Satan. Yet,
the minute egoistic minority that agreed with him to various extents were
in the billions. Thus, a profound dispute erupted within the Heavenly Community
(38:69). The rebels' unjustifiable challenge to God's absolute authority
was met and resolved in the most efficient manner. After giving the rebels
sufficient chances to denounce their crime and submit to Him, God decided
to exile the hard core rebels on a space ship called Earth, and give them
yet another chance to redeem themselves.

If you claim that you can fly a plane, the best way to test your
claim is to give you a plane and ask you to fly it. This is precisely
what God decided to do in response to Satan's claim that he could be
a god; God appointed him a temporary god on the tiny speck Earth (2:30,
36:60). As for those who agreed with Satan, they were given a chance to
kill their egos and submit to God's absolute authority. While the vast majority
of the guilty creatures took advantage of this opportunity, a miniscule
minority consisting of about 150 billion creatures failed to take advantage
of this offer (33:72).

The white
area represents the vast majority that did not agree with Satan.

The grey area represents the vast majority that repented and
submitted.

The dispute in the Heavenly Community led to the classification of God's
creatures into different categories:

(1) The Angels

Creatures who never questioned God's absolute authority were classified
as angels; they knew that God alone possesses the ability and qualifications
to be a god. The vast majority of God's creatures - countless numbers
- belong in this category. The number of angels is so enormous, even the
angels do not know how many of them there are; only God knows their number
(74:31).

(2) The Animals

Although the angels suggested that the rebels and their leader should
be exiled from God's kingdom (2:30), the Most Merciful willed to give the
rebels a chance to denounce their crime, repent, and submit to His absolute
authority (33:72). As represented in the diagram above, the vast majority
of the rebels took advantage of God's gracious offer to re-enter His kingdom.
They agreed to kill their egos, come to this world to perform a submissive
role, as an expiation for their blasphemy. In return for their submissive
role in this world, these creatures are redeemed back to God's eternal
kingdom (6:38). The horse, the dog, the tree, the sun, the moon, the stars,
as well as deformed and retarded children are among the intelligent creatures
who denounced their crime and repented:

Do you not realize that
to God prostrates everything
in the heavens and the earth;
the sun, the moon, the stars,
the mountains, the trees, the animals,
as well as many people?
Many people, however, are destined for retribution.
(22:18)

The stars and the trees prostrate.
(55:6)

The horse has no ego. The horse's owner can be rich or poor, tall
or short, fat or thin, young or old, and the horse will serve them all.
The dog has no ego; it will wag its tail to its owner, no matter how rich
or poor the owner might be. The sun rises and sets every day at precisely
the times prescribed by God. The moon follows its synchronized orbit around
the earth, without the slightest deviation. The human body - a temporary
garment - belongs to the Earth; as such, it is a submitter. The heart,
lungs, kidneys, and other organs, perform their functions without our control.

(3) The Humans

The hard-core rebels - humans and jinns - refused to denounce their
crime, and opted for witnessing a demonstration of Satan's claim. These
egotistic creatures who failed to submit to God's absolute authority, even
when offered a chance to do so, were divided in half. The half that were
less convinced of Satan's point of view became classified as humans. Although
they harbored doubts about Satan's claim, they failed to make a firm stand
regarding God's absolute authority. It is the ego that prevented these
creatures from appreciating God's omnipotence, it is the ego that prevented
them from submitting when such an opportunity was offered to them (33:72),
and it is the ego that stands between most of us and redemption to God's
kingdom (25:43). This is why "Kill your ego" is one of the first commandments
in the Quran (2:54).

(4) The Jinns

The other half of the guilty creatures, those who leaned closer to
Satan's point of view and exhibited the biggest egos, became classified
as jinns. It was God's plan to assign one jinn to every human being from
birth to death. The jinn companion represents Satan and constantly promotes
his point of view (50:23, 27). Both the jinns and the humans are given
a precious chance in this world to re-educate themselves, denounce their
egoism, and redeem themselves by submitting to God's absolute authority.
Whenever a human being is born, a jinn is born and is assigned to the new
human. We learn from the Quran that the jinns are Satan's descendants (7:27,
18:50). When a jinn being is born and assigned to a human being, the jinn
remains a constant companion of the human until the human dies. The jinn
is then freed, and lives on for a few centuries. Both humans and jinns are
required to worship God alone (51:56).

God Does Not Want Robots

The dispute in the Heavenly Community as stated in 38:69 and described above
proves that God's creatures possess the freedom of choice; they have
minds of their own. The rebellion of a miniscule minority among God's
creatures has served to emphasize the wonderful fact that God's creatures
serve Him because they appreciate His infinite magnificence. Without the
rebellion, we would have never known that freedom is God's gift to His
creatures.

Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Even in our worldly dimension, any enterprise expects its employees
to be loyal and devoted to the welfare of the enterprise. If an employee
is not totally dedicated to the enterprise, or is shown to have divided
loyalties, he is immediately dismissed. Since the humans and the jinns
sided with Satan, then turned down God's offer to reconsider their rebellious
acts, the angels expected Satan and his allies to be banished from God's
kingdom (2:30). It was immense mercy from God that He granted us this additional
chance to denounce our crime and redeem ourselves.

To carry out this exteremly merciful plan of redemption, God "created
death" (67:1-2). The divine plan called for bringing the rebels into another
existence, where they have no recollection of the heavenly feud. Under
the circumstances of this life, the humans and the jinns receive both God's
messages and Satan's messages, then freely choose either side. Based on
their freewill decision, they are either redeemed into God's kingdom, or
become permanently exiled with Satan.

Satan's Temporary Dominion

To emphasize the utter insignificance of Satan's projected dominion,
God created a billion galaxies, a billion trillion stars, within a vast
universe that spans billions of light years. If we travel towards the
Sun (93,000,000 miles) at the speed of light, we will reach it in eight
minutes. If we keep going, we will reach the border of our Milky Way Galaxy
after 50-70,000 years at the speed of light. To reach the nearest galaxy,
it will take us 2,000,000 years at the speed of light, and there are at
least 2,000,000,000 galaxies in "our universe." With the most powerful
telescopes, the earth is utterly invisible from the edge of our own galaxy,
let alone from the edge of our universe. As if our universe were not vast
enough, God created six more, even larger universes surrounding our universe
(2:29, 67:3). God then informed Satan that a tiny mote within the smallest
and innermost universe, the planet Earth, shall be his dominion. God's
plan called for placing the humans and jinns in a universe that cannot
stand His physical presence (7:143). Thus, Satan rules his minute kingdom
far from the physical presence of God, though with God's full knowledge
and control. It should also be noted that the number of rebels who repented
was so vast, that the planet earth could not possibly accommodate all
of them. As it is, the animals vastly outnumber the humans on this planet.
It would take an unmanagable earth to accommodate all the repentant rebels.
Hence the placement of uncountable decillions of creatures in outer space.

Adam and Eve

The body of the first human being was shaped on earth by God's angels,
in accordance with God's instructions (7:11). God then assigned the first
person, Adam, to that body. When God informed the angels that they will
be serving the humans throughout the test period - guarding them, driving
the winds, distributing the rain and provisions, etc. - Satan was the
only one who refused to "fall prostrate" (2:34, 15:31, 38:74). Adam's
mate was cloned, with feminine features, from Adam, and God assigned the
second human being to her body. While the empty (soulless) bodies of Adam
and Eve remained here on earth, their souls, the real persons, resided
in Heaven. Adam and Eve remained in Heaven for as long as they upheld God's
commandments. Once they listened to Satan instead, they reflected a flawed
human nature in all of us, and they immediately belonged to Satan's dominion
down on Earth - "their bodies became visible to them" (7:20, 20:121). The
rest is history.

Satan: Father of All the Jinns

Putting the jinns and the humans to the test stipulated that Satan
shall reproduce whenever a human being is born. As mentioned above, every
time a human being is born, a jinn being is born to serve as a constant
companion of the human person. Every human being is subjected to the
incessant persuasions of Satan's representative who lives in the same
body from birth to death. Satan's representative tries to convince the
human companion of Satan's point of view: that God alone is not enough.
On the Day of Judgment, the jinn companion serves as a witness against
the human counterpart (43:38; 50:23, 27). Many jinn companions are converted
to God's point of view by the human companions.

God did not leave the human being without preparation. To help the
humans in their final chance to reconsider their blasphemy, every person
is born with instinctive knowledge that God ALONE, and no one else, is
our Lord and Master (7:172-173). The jinns were not given this instinctive
knowledge, but they are given a much longer life span and greater abilities
to study God's signs throughout the innermost universe. Since they represent
Satan's point of view, their instinctive nature leans strongly in favor
of polytheism. In addition to our built-in instinct to worship God alone,
God sent messengers to help us redeem ourselves. With all these elements
in view, we can appreciate the fact that the only unforgivable offense
(if maintained until death) is idol worship: believing that anyone besides
God possesses any power.

Forty Years Grace Period

The human being is given forty years to study, look around, reflect,
and examine all points of view before making this most important decision
- to uphold Satan's point of view, or God's absolute authority. Anyone
who dies before the age of forty is chosen by God for redemption due to
circumstances known only to God. Anyone who dies before the age of 40
goes to Heaven (46:15, Appendix 32). God's immense mercy is evident from
the fact that even those who believe in the Quran find it difficult to
accept such a compassionate divine law.

God's messengers delivered the good news of our God-given chance
to redeem ourselves, and they were supported by formidable signs. When
Moses went to Pharaoh, he was supported by such miracles as the turning
of his staff into a serpent. Jesus created live birds from clay by God's
leave, healed the leprous and the blind by God's leave, and revived the
dead by God's leave. The prophet Muhammad, God's messenger who delivered
this Final Testament, did not exhibit such miracles (10:20). The Quran itself
was the miracle supporting Muhammad's mission (29:50-51). It was divine
wisdom that separated the Miracle of the Quran from Muhammad by 14 centuries.
Now that we understand the momentous dimensions of the Quran's mathematical
miracle (Appendix 1), we realize that millions of people would have worshiped
Muhammad as God incarnate if this Miracle were revealed through him.

Proof of Authenticity:
Physical, Tangible, Irrefutable.

With the advent of the computer age, we discover that the Quran's
mathematical code is "One of the great miracles" as stated in 74:30-35.
While the miracles given to previous messengers were limited in time and
place, the Quran's miracle is perpetual. Only a few people witnessed the
miracles of Moses and Jesus, but the Quran's miracle can be witnessed by
anyone at any time. Furthermore, the Quran's miracle documents and proves
all the previous miracles (5:48).

As detailed in Appendix 1, the Quran's mathematical miracle is based
on the number "19." To share this awesome miracle with the reader, the
word "GOD" is printed throughout the English text in bold capital letters,
and the cumulative number of occurrences is shown at the lower left corner
of every page. The total occurrence of this most important word is shown
at the end of the Quran to be 2698. This total is a multiple of 19. Additionally,
when we add the numbers assigned to every verse where the word "God" occurs,
the total comes to 118123, also a multiple of 19 (19x6217). The cumulative
sum of verse numbers where the word "God" occurs is shown on the lower right
corner of every page. These simple physical facts are easily verifiable
by the reader, and they suffice to prove the super-human nature of the Quran's
mathematical composition.

Total Count of the Word
"God"
(Shown at the lower left corner of every page)
2698 (19x142)

Total Sum of Verse Numbers
(Shown at the lower right corner)
118123 (19x6217)

Proof of Authenticity to be Verified by the Reader

In addition to the Quran's extraordinary mathematical composition,
we
find a large number of Quranic facts which are proven or theorized
by
modern science. Here are a few examples of such advance scientific
information:

The earth is egg-shaped (39:5, 79:30).

The earth is not standing still; it moves constantly (27:88).

The sun is a source of light, while the moon reflects it (10:5, 25:61,
71:16).

The proportion of oxygen diminishes as we climb towards the sky (6:125).

The "Big Bang Theory" is confirmed (21:30).

The "Expansion of the Universe Theory" is confirmed (51:47).

The universe started out as a gaseous mass (41:11).

Evolution is a fact; within a given species, evolution is a divinely
guided process (21:30, 24:45, 32:7-9, 18:37, 15:28-29, 7:11, 71:13-14, Appendix
31).

The man's seminal fluid decides the baby's gender (53:45-46).

No Nonsense

Equally miraculous is the absence of any nonsense in the Quran. This
is particularly significant in view of the dominance of ignorance and
superstition at the time of revelation of the Quran. For example, the
most respected exegesis among the traditional Muslims is that of Ibn Kathir.
In this famous reference, written centuries after the Prophet, we read
that the earth is carried on 40,000 horns of a giant bull, who stands on
top of a giant whale (see Ibn Kathir's interpretation of Verse 68:1).

As recently as 1975, and in the same location where the Quran was
revealed, the president of the Islamic University of Medina, Saudi Arabia,
Sheikh Abdul Aziz Ben Baz, declared that the earth is flat and standing
still (see insert)!!

Translation from Ben Baz' book, Page 23: "If the earth is rotating as they
claim, the countries, the mountains, the trees, the rivers, and the oceans
will have no bottom and the people will see the eastern countries move to
the west and the western countries move to the east."

Perfect Happiness: Now and Forever

One of the most elusive objectives of every human being is "Happiness."
The Quran reveals the secret of attaining perfect happiness in this life
and forever. We learn from the Quran that happiness is an exclusive quality
of the soul. Thus, a body that attains all the material successes it longs
for - money, power, fame, etc. - often belongs to an unhappy person. Happiness
depends totally on the degree of growth and development attained by the
soul, the real person. The Quran provides a detailed map towards perfect
happiness for both body and soul, both in this world and in the eternal
Hereafter (Appendix 15).

In the numerous verses throughout this proven Testament, God personally
guarantees the believers' happiness, now and forever:

Absolutely, God's allies will
have nothing to fear,
nor will they grieve.
They are those who believe
and lead a righteous life.
For them happiness in this life, and in the Hereafter.
Such is God's inviolable law.
This is the true triumph
[10:62-64]

All Believers Constitute the One Acceptable Religion

As expected from the Creator's final message, one of the prominent
themes in the Quran is the call for unity among all believers, and the
repeated prohibition of making any distinction among God's messengers.
If the object of worship is one and the same, there will be absolute unity
among all believers. It is the human factor, i.e., devotion and prejudice
to such powerless humans as Jesus, Muhammad, and the saints that causes
division, hatred, and bitter wars among the misguided believers. A guided
believer is devoted to God ALONE, and rejoices in seeing any other believer
who is devoted to God ALONE, regardless of the name such a believer calls
his or her religion.

Surely, those who believe,
those who are Jewish,
the Christians,
and the converts;
anyone who
(1) believes in God,
(2) believes in the Last Day, and
(3) leads a righteous life,
will receive their recompense from their Lord;
they have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve.
[2:62, 5:69]

God's Messenger of the Covenant

As detailed in Appendix 2, the publication of this book marks the
advent of a new era - the era where God's messages, delivered by all His
prophets, are consolidated into one. God's one and only religion, "Submission,"
shall dominate all other religions (9:33, 48:28, and 61:9). Today's corrupted
religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam,
will simply die out, and "Submission" will prevail. This is not the wishful
thinking of a human being or a collection of humans; this is God's inviolable
law (3:19, 9:33, 41:53, 48:28, 61:9, 110:1).

Rashad Khalifa
Tucson
Ramadan 26, 1409*

* The final draft of the first printing was completed in the Night
of Destiny 1409. If we add the day, month, and year of this date,
we get 1444, or 19x19x4 [Ramadan 26, 1409: 9+26+1409 = 1444.]